"Magic is No Magic"
the Wonderful World of Simon Stevin

Gives a comprehensive picture of the activities and the creative heritage of Simon Stevin, who made contributions to various fields of science, in particular physics and mathematics.

In doing so, the authors have kept to established historical facts and critically underpinned scientific insights into Stevin and his work. This is the first complete and accessible history of the work of Simon Stevin.

Stevin's works mentioned in the textPrologue. The Low Countries in Stevin's dayChapter One. Simon Stevin and the RenaissanceMiddle Ages, Renaissance and the Modern Age
Printing
The universities
The Renaissance in art, literature, science and technology
Simon Stevin: Scholar and Engineer
Box 1: How did Stevin know the works of the ancient Greeks?Chapter Two. Simon Stevin, religious exile?The Bruges period
Box 1: Documents in the Bruges city archives
Box 2: Calvinism in Bruges between 1550 and 1584
Box 3: Important dates in Simon Stevin's life
Dedication to the Republic
Box 4: The University of Leiden
Box 5: A letter to the town council of Gdansk
Box 6: Maurice of Nassau
Married life and descendantsChapter Three. The man who 'invented' the decimal systemDecimal fractions for elementary calculations
Translations of Stevin's De Thiende
Uniform ways of counting and measuring
Box 1: The decimal system before and after Stevin
Box 2: An addition of decimal fractions
Box 3: Extracting roots
Box 4: Of weights and measures
Box 5: A chaotic monetary situation in the Low Countries
Box 6: Shakespeare and De Thiende
Box 7: The dollar and the dismeChapter Four. Engineer and InventorPatents
Box 1: Patent granted by the States of Holland on 17 February 1584
Mills
Box 2: The IJsselstein mill
Sluices
Hydraulic designs
Box 3: Extract from Van den handel der Waterschuyring onses Vaders Simon Stevin
Navigation
The Art of War (military science)
Stevin as an architectChapter Five. Economist avant la lettreIntroduction
The Nieuwe Inventie
Box 1: Double-entry or Italian bookkeeping
The Tafelen van Interest
Box 2: Le grand parti
BookkeepingChapter Six. Wonder en is gheen wonderIntroduction
The structure of De Beghinselen der Weeghconst
Box 1: The clootcrans
De Weeghdaet
De Beghinselen des Waterwichts and the Anvang der Waterwichtdaet
Box 2: Stevin was there before Pascal
Box 3: The pressure of water on vertical and inclined walls
Box 4: Why do ships float?
Summary: the significance of Stevin's work in physicsChapter Seven. The link between Italian and French algebraIntroduction
Box 1: Quadratic, cubic and quartic equations
Box 2: Completing a square with an example given by Al-Khwarizmi (c. 800)
Geometrical numbers
Algebraic numbers and the representation of polynomials
Equations
The Rule of AlgebraChapter Eight. Stevin's contribution to the Dutch languageStevin and the building of the Dutch language
Early printed editions of works on medicine and the natural sciences
Stevin's presence in the Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal
Neologisms and semantic neologismsChapter Nine. PerspectiveThe historical context and pioneering aspect of Stevin's Vande Verschaeuwing
A short description of Vande Deursichtighe
Maurice, Stevin and Durer
Stevin's followers: De Vries, 's Gravesande...
ImpactChapter Ten. An extraordinary didactic genius: Stevin's 'visible language'Introduction
Stevin's information graphics
Vanden HemelloopChapter Eleven. An unfinished compositionIntroduction
Stevin divides the octave into 12 equal intervals
Box 1: Explanation of the most important ideas in the Singconst
'Now in order to divide the monochord geometrically...' and the 'Arithmetical Division of the Monochord', Temperament in Stevin's time and the placing of the frets on the neck of a lute
What Verheyen had to say...
The historical place of Stevin's tone systemChapter Twelve. The resonance of Simon Stevin and his workIntroduction
Box 1: The statue of Simon Stevin in Bruges
Box 2: Stevin's books in the antiquarian book world
Stevin's influence on some of his contemporaries
Box 3: Simon Stevin: an innovator and polymath
Later reactions of eminent scholarsEpilogueBibliography